Welcome to Jamaica

Greetings from Bluefields, Jamaica! Everything’s irie! (that pretty much means “good”). Yesterday we landed at the Montego Bay airport after a long day of travel. Once the whole team arrived (we were on separate flights), we boarded the bus and headed to the nearest jerk stand for our first authentic taste of Jamaica. The place we ended up at had TV’s; all of them tuned into the Olympics, with the Men’s final 400 m relay race coming up soon. We finished our lunches in anticipation of the race. We noticed the place filling up with people, also awaiting the start…and then it came.

You have to understand, that Jamaicans are PROUD of their country and PROUD of their teams. They won 12 medals in he Olympics this year…pretty impressive for a country of 3.5 million and many hardships. At each pass of the baton, the crowd’s volume went up a notch. Jamaica and USA were neck in neck, until the last pass of the baton to Usain Bolt, when he took off ahead of the pack to win the gold medal for Jamaica and break a world record. The place exploded in a fervor of cheers, trashcan lids banging, and people jumping up and down. I have never seen or heard anything like it, and it was pretty overwhelming as our official “Welcome” to a new place.

Each morning and night we have a devotion and team reflection time. If you can pray for us, tonight the team asks for prayers for:

Karen’s wellness tomorrow

Team strength – physically, mentally, emotionally, and as a group

Our new family (Wolde, Joy, Wolde, Jr., Veda, Myrna, Michael and Dion) who are taking care of us this week.

All the people we meet starting work tomorrow

That we have a prosperous day in spreading the word of Jesus Christ.

That our teams stay safe with no injuries or bee stings

The Mundy family

Our families and friends back home.

More to come,we have been to church today, met some people in the community and start work tomorrow. So many stories to tell, and it is only Day 2!